EDMONTON -- Christmas is coming soon.

The worldwide holiday is rapidly approaching, and a select group of hockey fans anticipates an event that has become a yearly tradition -- the World Junior tournament.

The Edmonton Oilers will have only one player representing Team Canada from their prospect system. Beau Akey of the OHL's Barrie Colts has been invited to Team Canada's World Junior camp.

The 19-year-old blueliner has 16 points in 22 games this season. He's at the best point pace of his OHL career, collecting 0.73 points per game so far this year. In addition to his 16 points, he's more comfortable shooting the puck, having fired 52 shots on net this season.

A major injury shortened his season last year. Akey only skated for 14 games and recorded nine points.

Cameron Allen, Oliver Bonk, Harrison Brunicke, Sam Dickinson, Andrew Gibson, Tanner Molendyk, Sawyer Mynio, Caden Price, and Matthew Schaefer were the other defenders invited to Team Canada's Camp. I suspect two or three defenders will be cut from the roster before the tournament starts.

Akey had a strong training camp last year but was unfortunately injured for a good chunk of this year's pre-season. At this point, Akey is clearly the top offensively gifted defense prospect in the Oilers system.

His greatest strengths are his skating and awareness, and he will need to display both at Team Canada's camp to make the team. If Akey is selected, it will be his first time to represent Canada internationally.

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